IOTA FUNDING STATUS: GOING AFTER THE

SCIENCEPAUL MALEY (IOTA) AND BILL

MERLINE (SwRI)2011 IOTA ANNUAL MEETING

16 JULY 2011

BACKGROUND

• PRESENTATION AT COLORADO MEETING• INTEREST FROM SWRI• BENEFIT TO INTEGRATE VARIOUS

METHODSKOALA• UPGRADING OF IOTA TECHNOLOGY TO MEET

PROFESSIONAL DEMANDS

• KOALA (for Knitted Occultations, Adaptive-optics and Light-curves Approach) is an algorithm which allow to derive the absolute size, rotational pole and shape of a celestial body based on disk-resolved images, stellar occultation chords and optical light-curves.

ISSUES

• OCCULTATION PATHS ARE SCATTERED• FEW EVENTS IN THE US IN 2012• TRAVEL EXPENSES ALWAYS PAID BY

VOLUNTEERS• NEED FOR FUNDING BASED ON ECONOMY

HOW TO SELECT THE RIGHT CANDIDATE OCCULTATIONS

• Number of sites that could be fielded• Urgency for scientific solutions• Difficulty for travel• Weather risk

CRITERIA (1)

• AVOID EVENTS THAT HAVE PATH ERRORS LARGER THAN 1.0 DIAMETERS

• LOOK AT MAJOR EVENT LOCATIONS WORLDWIDE WHERE OBSERVERS COULD BE DEPLOYED

• AVOID SMALL TARGET LUNAR ELONGATIONS• AVOID AREAS CONSTRAINED BY COLD WEATHER

(e.g. Hilda, Feb 9 Canada)• AVOID EXPENSIVE TRAVEL OPTIONS• FOCUS ON MAXIMIZING MULTISTATION

RETURNS (FEWEST OBSERVERS, MOST STATIONS)

CRITERIA (2)• AVOID LOW MAG DROPS• AVOID PATHS THAT DON’T CROSS AREAS

ACCESSIBLE BY OBSERVERS• AVOID STARS FAINTER THAN 11+• AVOID DOUBLE STARS• AVOID STARS WITH PROPER MOTION ISSUES• PATH PROXIMITY TO TWILIGHT LINE• AVOID CLOSE PROXIMITY TO MOON• CONSIDER INTERNATIONAL EVENTS

VALUE TO SCIENCE

• TIME TO MILLISECOND LEVEL• RECORDED IMAGERY• BLANKET COVERAGE (SINGLE CHORDS NOT

HELPFUL)• EXPAND ASTEROID MODEL CONTRIBUTIONS:

SAME ASTEROID AT DIFFERENT PHASE ANGLES

• MINIMIZE DATA COLLECTION ERROR SOURCES

ENABLERS

• GROW THE BUSINESS (E.G. IOTA-ME)• RELY ON NEW TECHNOLOGY PROGRESSION

(KIWI, BLACK BOX, JXD990, ETC.)• MULTISTATION INDEPENDENCE• OBTAIN $$ SUPPORT ON A CONTINUING BASIS• PUBLISH, PUBLISH, PUBLISH RESULTS!!!

PRIORITY EVENTS FOR 2011 (TBC)

PRIORITY EVENTS FOR

2012

MNEMOSYNE 3/11/12

AUSONIA 3/21/12

PALES 4/24/12

EUNIKE 8/3/12

EUROPA (8/12/12): Mv10.7, 81s

BACKLUNDA 9/17/12

ATE (10/5/12)

BRIXIA (10/22/12)

SIBYLLA (11/25/12)